Naomi assumed the hardest part of hunting would be catching up to her prey. Back in the real world, wild animals were always running away from her well-intentioned hugs. Instead, the hardest part was finding eatable prey in the first place.

The aberration from earlier had probably scared a lot of the small animals away long before Naomi had heard it coming. Not to mention she was pretty sure her new body was colorblind just like her old one. That made finding hidden animals more difficult.

Naomi tracked slowly through the scattered brush. The sun filtered through the trees, carving out pockets of shadow for her to move between. Now that she wasn’t fleeing for her life she could focus on how her new body felt to move in. Whereas her old body was lanky and out of shape, now she moved with a natural grace. Occasionally she would rub her hands together just to feel how soft her skin had become.

With another rumble of her stomach, Naomi’s attention returned to the hunt. She tried to focus on every detail around her but there was nothing to see. The only sound was the occasional rustle of leaves and sticks as she stepped. She tried to choose her footing carefully but sometimes there was no choice.

Frustrated and still hungry, she sat on a rock and decided to check that Menu again. So far she was wandering with no direction. Maybe she would find some game breaking skill for infinite cheeseburgers. She closed here eyes and selected Stats this time.

Languages

Low Elven, Common

Class

Rogue

HP

13

Strength

25

Dexterity

47

Constitution

28

Wisdom

31

Intelligence

38

Charisma

41

There were a few interesting things going on. For one, apparently her new Elven form came packages with some Elven language proficiency. Naomi recalled trying and failing to learn Irish to connect with her ancestry back in the real world. Here language worked different.

Another point of interest was her Class. Rogue was perfect. In video games, Naomi had always played as rogues, rangers, and other quick scout builds.

Finally were her highest stats: dexterity and charisma. Dexterity made sense with her new lithe figure, but Naomi has never been the most charismatic. Sure, she could get through conversations well enough but she had been labeled ‘annoying’ enough times to take the hint.

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Still, the exact mechanics of these numbers was a mystery to her.

Then Naomi flicked back to the main Menu and selected Skills.

Sneaky Stab

While hidden from target, deal double damage.

Climb

Easily scale most surfaces

Hide

When out of sight, remain completely still to become effectively invisible.

Sneak

While moving slowly, you are difficult to notice.

Elven Hearing

Your long ears give you more precise hearing.

Infravision

In darkness, heat becomes visible as color.

Altogether the Skills were useful but nothing unexpected or game breaking.

The Climb, Hide, and Sneak skills explained a lot about her encounter with that aberration.

The Elven Hearing was interesting. She had not noticed anything particularly different about her auditory senses. She had heard the aberration coming from afar, but hadn’t thought much of it. It did make her think she wasn’t making as much noise with her occasional crunchy footsteps as she had thought. Maybe she was just extra aware of that.

Naomi navigated to the Inventory page again and found the same information she had previously when she put her hand in her pocket. Then she went to Settings, hoping there might be some unprecedented abilities that this world had never seen!

Display Language

Common

Reduce Flashing

OFF

Colorblind Filter

OFF

Ok, nothing game breaking but she flicked on each option. She wasn’t sure if this body was as prone to nausea as her old one, but it wouldn’t hurt. The colorblindness feature was exciting. When she turned it on, the Menu transitioned to a loading screen of sorts.

Evaluating Eyes…

Colorblind Filter Applied.

On the one hand, it was jarring to open her eyes with a color filter applied to her vision, but the slight shift in color made details much easier to pick out. She noticed a small hole in the side of a nearby tree. And apparently there were berries in some of the bushes she’d been walking past.

Naomi’s stomach growled again. This time audibly (at least to her Elven ears). She really needed to eat. Naomi worried that the berries could be poisonous but she had little hope that a handy guide to edible plants was going to drop in her lap anytime soon.

Then she realized she was another sound. Very quiet. Just on the edge of her hearing. A small movement within a nearby bush. She glanced in that direction and this time was able to pick out the animal.

A rabbit with tiny wings. Naomi slowly approached it and then pounced, grabbing it in her hands. The winged rabbit squirmed in her hands and then tore away. It didn’t seem capable of total flight but each hop became a glide before it disappeared from sight.

Dammit! She probably should have gone right in for the kill with her rusty knife. At the same time, Naomi felt bad killing a little animal. She wasn’t sure she could do it. At least not yet. She wasn’t a vegetarian before, but it was a little harder to actually kill the meat herself.

Resigned to questionable berries, Naomi began picking and quickly had a handful of red fruit. They looked like blueberries, but the red color was activating a bit of that uneasy feeling she got when food looked different than she was used to. Still, her low hunger could start to damage her health at some point and her growling stomach would eventually make her a walking target for predators. She took the smallest imaginable bite of one of the berries.

It tasted more like a strawberry than a blueberry, but more importantly, the flavor was good. She continued to eat pretty slowly, focusing on becoming more familiar with the berry so it would stop setting off alarm bells in her brain. Naomi had read something about the body not getting as much nutrition from food it didn’t want to eat.

Soon she was snacking on the berries like no problem and her stomach stopped growling. Eventually a notification appeared: Hunger Meter Full.

That was great. Now she could get back to being completely lost in the woods. Looking up, Naomi started to realize that the sun was getting lower in the sky and soon she would need a place to sleep.